Baby steps

Our on-the-scene Arkansas correspondent writes again:

"Anne’s last extraneous support team left , as parents Mary and Clarence departed Friday morning.  They left a clean house, pile of clean laundry, and refrigerator full of food.  Fortunately Jackson rolled in from Dallas Friday night, arriving for his long weekend “fall break” from SMU and staying through Tuesday.  He is good with the heavy lifting and errands, and with Jack home for the weekend, that should ease us back into close to “normal” this coming week. 

Anne is getting up and down the stairs, out to and back from the front porch, and  in and out of the car (no driving yet) pretty handily provided she can move at her own (very deliberate) speed and lifts nothing heavier than a pencil.  Doctor says all healing is proceeding as anticipated, but as different sets of nerves, muscles and other bodily stuff come back to life, and still rebuilding her stamina, there’s a new hurt every day, and one to two sinking spells a day when she just has to shut down, sometimes with the help of a  happy pill, and lie down for several hours to re-energize for the next leap forward.  But the active periods are longer, down periods shorter, and steady progress is made. 

We went to an informal supper with close friends at one of their homes Friday night.   We arrived late,  left early, and Anne never unclutched the “comfort pillow” she keeps against her tummy and chest, but sat up, joined us for dinner, had a great time, and after about forty-five minutes of party, predictably and precipitously crashed.  But she said the outing was well worth it.

We’ve continued to receive wonderful, timely deliveries of food, and as Anne’s appetite has returned, she along with the support crew has enjoyed everyone’s “best recipes.”  A get well card arrived yesterday from all of the school staff, with a whole handful of gift cards at our favorite local restaurants, so that will hopefully  ease us  back this coming week to having to fend for ourselves…which will be kind of nice being back to normal, but the support has been wonderful."